As 2015 comes to a close, the Geochemical Society would like to wish its members, partners and other industry professionals a safe and happy holiday season. As we reflect on the past year, we would like to provide the readers of Geochemical News a look at the most accessed articles from the year. Our regular publication will resume Jan. 5.

UCLA via ScienceDailyFrom Oct. 27: Geochemists have found probable evidence for life on Earth at least 4.1 billion years ago — 300 million years earlier than previously documented, pushing the origin of life close to when the planet formed, 4.54 billion years ago.READ MORE

The Huffington PostFrom April 14: How did Earth's continents form? That's one of geoscience's deepest mysteries, but now researchers may be a big step closer to solving it — after gaining a new understanding of the process that creates the continental crust, which makes up the land masses on which we live.READ MORE

Analab Corrosion Resistant Laboratory AppliancesAnalab manufacture corrosion resistant laboratory appliances such as
acid vapour cleaning stations, hotplates, and sample preparation
devices. Our devices can be used with a wide range of acids and bases
(HF to NH4OH). We are represented in North America by Isomass
Scientific.

Woods Hole Oceanographic InstitutionFrom Sept. 8: Ancient rocks harbored microbial life deep below the seafloor, reports a team of scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Virginia Tech, and the University of Bremen. This new evidence was contained in drilled rock samples of Earth's mantle – thrust by tectonic forces to the seafloor during the Early Cretaceous period. The new study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.READ MORE

Nature Geoscience News and ViewsFrom June 30: The continents are archives of Earth's evolution. Analysis of the isotopic signature of continental crust globally suggests that buoyant, silicic continents began to form 3 billion years ago, possibly linked to the onset of plate tectonics.READ MORE

European Association of Geochemistry via Phys.orgFrom June 23: So perhaps there is some truth in the old legends of the underworld reeking of brimstone? New research confirms that the Earth's core does in fact contain vast amounts of sulphur, estimated to be up to 8.5 x 1018 tonnes. This is about 10 times the amount of sulphur in the rest of the Earth, based on the most recent estimates.READ MORE

NatureFrom June 2: The Earth's long-term silica cycle is intimately linked to weathering rates and biogenic uptake. Changes in weathering rates and the retention of silica on land have altered silica availability in the oceans for hundreds of millions of years.READ MORE

University of British Columbia via ScienceDailyFrom July 28: Compared to its celestial neighbors Venus and Mars, Earth is a pretty habitable place. So how did we get so lucky? A new study sheds light on the improbable evolutionary path that enabled Earth to sustain life.READ MORE

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory via ScienceDailyFrom Sept. 29: There is more oxygen in the core of Earth than originally thought. Geologists have discovered some new findings about Earth's core and mantle by considering their geophysical and geochemical signatures together.READ MORE

University of Southern DenmarkFrom March 17. : Fluctuating climate is a hallmark of Earth, and the present greenhouse effect is far from the only force affecting today's climate. On a larger scale the Earth's climate is also strongly affected by how the Earth orbits around the sun; this is called orbital forcing of climate change. These changes happen over thousands of years and they bring ice ages and warming periods.READ MORE